Cinderella
by Lady Ianite
Summary: Once upon a time there was a Servant Girl who wanted to enjoy herself at a ball. Once upon a time there was a prince who was forced to get married. Cinderella Sherlock style.


**_Cinderella_**

Once upon a time, there was a servant girl, and her name was Molly Hooper. Now Molly served Lady Harriet, and Lady Harriet's daughters: Lady Irene the oldest, and Lady Kitty the younger. She cleaned the house, cooked food, and in her spare time she would experiment with chemicals. Even though she worked hard the ladies were not grateful to say the least. Molly was never allowed to go anywhere or do anything, all she did was work. But even though her life was hard she still enjoyed it.

Now King Mycroft had put the matter off for a long time, but he knew that one of the royal Holmes brothers had to get married. After a lot of convincing he had_ persuaded (forced)_ his brother, Sherlock to host a ball, which all single women would present themselves to the royal prince. There was something about Sherlock that attracted girls to him, maybe it was his face, maybe it was the way he talked, or maybe it was just that the king was too unbearable so they went for Sherlock instead, but for some reason the girls liked Sherlock better so it seemed best to have Sherlock get married, _not_ himself.

Now Molly would give anything to go to this ball, she had wanted to go to a ball for years, she didn't care about the prince, she just wanted to have a good time, and here was her chance. So she went to go ask Lady Harriet if she could come along with them to the ball. "Darling, are you truly serious?" The lady of the house let out a very loud giggle. "You are no more than a servant girl, and I mean just... Look at your hair, your clothes, balls are one thing darling, but those you would make us the fools of the ball and mortify the prince." Molly hung her head and went to her room to think. She had tailored a dress earlier, and she had "_found" _money to hire a carriage for one night. So she triumphantly smiled, and it slid off her face just as quickly as it came, Lady Harriet strolled in with a pair of scissors and a smug look on her face.

Prince Sherlock groaned at the sight of the different outfits, all lined up in an orderly fashion. "Well my lord have you chosen your outfit for tonight?" The grand duke inquired as he strolled in to see the prince sprawled out on his bed. "What do you think?" The prince replied with a bittersweet taste in his tone. The duke raised his eyebrows "You need to learn your manners sometime or another, my lord." Sherlock sighed "Please _John_, spare me of your lectures, I have had quite enough for one day" John rolled his eyes "Well thank you for at least remembering I have a name, but you need to sort things out for the ball tonight, your brother is just as annoyed as you are." The prince sat up and grabbed a black outfit with blue embroidered onto the collar and hem. "Doesn't that seem a bit dark for this occasion?" John inquired promptly sitting on the prince's bed. "It displays my feelings perfectly, wouldn't you agree?" Sherlock replied heading into his dressing room. "Well good luck tonight," The duke said, getting up and heading towards the throne room, "you will need it."

Everything seemed to be falling apart, Lady Harriet had torn Molly's dress apart, robbed her of her money for the carriage, and locked her in the backyard of the estate for the night. Molly had been crying for who knows how long, then she heard a strange noise. For some silly reason she hoped it was a man, she quickly flushed the idea out of her head, and decided to go and investigate. She came upon this transparent woman who was sitting on a bench looking down at a mask, completely ignoring the beautiful fountain. "Ummm, hello?" Molly said studying the strange woman. "Oh hello, oh silly me I forgot again," She put away the mask "I am spirit who does temporary magic! I heard you wished to go to the prince's ball tonight, but you were forced to stay here by yourself, so I felt pity and I thought I could help you!" The spirit exclaimed leaping up from the bench. Molly was very confused by the spirit, "Why me? I'm nothing special, and I mean I bet there are other girls who want to go to but why me?" The spirit smiled, "Dear I _already _helped them you were the last one on my list," Molly looked offended, but she let the spirit continue. "And to answer your question I am bound to grant peoples wish in the king's province till my husband follows the same path I took, _death_." Then the spirit looked at the mask one last time and then put it away for good. "Well thank you, where shall we start?" Molly said trying to lighten the mood. The spirit smiled and said "The dress of course!" And with a wave of her wand Molly was wearing a dress, and the spirit continued this process until she had a beautiful golden outfit with matching shoes, and a carriage. "One last thing before you go, the spell will break at midnight, so be back by then!" The spirit said as Molly got into the carriage, "Wait! One more question what is your name?" Molly called out as the carriage started to move. The spirit replied, "The world knew me as Mary, but you can call me Alexandra!"

King Mycroft strode out onto the balcony overlooking the ballroom, and leaned against the sturdy railing. "Well I hope this works." John said as he walked onto the balcony as well. "Please, he is all worn out from todays preparations, he will be less rebellious, and more himself," the king replied. They watched as the servants were getting the prince ready, and the food and drinks being carried out in an orderly fashion. "So did you force him to choose an outfit?" Mycroft asked, studying Sherlock's outfit carefully, "He chose it at the last minute, actually." John replied proudly. Mycroft smiled briefly, and turned his head to look at the anxious crowd, outside the palace. "They will cause a riot if they wait much longer, I hope then don't trample Sherlock." He commented with no sarcasm in his voice. "Looks like they are letting people in now." John replied. The women lined in a orderly fashion in front of the prince, so that each one could greet him. All the ladies tried to seduce him with their looks, but it was no good. "Even when he is tired he is stubborn!" Mycroft sighed. "Well maybe he is deducing them?" John suggested casually. "Possibly, he probably is." Mycroft replied, "He is probably looking for one who is smart like him." The king added. "Well good luck to him, finding one in this lot." John said unhappily, "They are just dreamers who want to marry the prince."

Sherlock was more tired than ever, there were so many women to deduce, his hard drive was filled with information, about each and every one of the women. After he had greeted all the woman, he almost sprinted to the food, he was starving. After he was refreshed he looked over, and he noticed one maiden walk though the big gates, she was late. From there he could only deduce so much, but that was all he needed. He hurried along before the other woman noticed, and was by her side by the time they did. She looked up at him with surprise, and tried to smile the best she could. He smiled back and he finally remembered his manners. "Hello," he felt so awkward being polite, but he hoped she would not be some snob, and that his deduction was wrong. "Ummm, hi." The Girl replied. She was as nervous as he was, his deduction was spot on! "Would you like to take a walk in the gardens?" He asked trying not to get excited. The women were frantic to get his attention, so the guards had to stop them. Sherlock smiled, took her hand, and led her to the gardens. Once they were alone he sat down, trying to take it all in. "So, why me?" She said sitting down next to him smiling even more nervously than before. "You didn't care. You didn't expect to be chosen, you were here for the enjoyment, not _me. _She nodded, "How did you know?" She asked. "When you walked in, you weren't looking to see where I was, you were just seemed happy. The others seemed different. So what is your name?" Sherlock asked remembering his manners. "Oh, it's Molly." She said looking up. Sherlock smiled, this was going to be the best night of his life.

It had been hard for Molly to explain why she had to leave at twelve o'clock, but Sherlock had surprisingly believed her, but the problem was how would he find her? Lady Harriet would never let him through to see her. "Here take my shoe, say that I ran away, so that they will conduct a search to find me." It was a brilliant plan, and it worked perfectly. The next day everyone was alerted that the maiden had run away and that any maiden who fit the shoe would be taken before the prince for _examination_. Three days had passed, then the guards came to Lady Harriet's estate. Lady Harriet had locked Molly in her room as a precaution, but she didn't know Molly had the other key. Molly listened to Lady Irene and Lady Kitty chatting away about the prince, and sorts of fowl things. (which were too explicit to put into this tale, but what can I say we can only imagine Molly's dream that night) It was incredibly boring listening to the guards rambling on about the terms and why they were there, but it was better than nothing. After about 10 minutes of rambling they got down to business. First was Lady Irene the oldest, from what Molly heard it sounded as if she was trying to sound graceful, but it wasn't working, and she was getting frustrated. Next was Lady Kitty the younger, now she wasn't as graceful as her sister, and from what Molly heard it was just sheer desperation. They didn't even let Lady Harriet try, her feet were obviously too big. Finally it was time to make her entrance, Molly unlocked the door and gracefully walked down the stairs. "Wait, please wait! May I try it on?" The duke smiled and nodded, and for a second she saw Alexandra standing next to him, and then she was gone. She knew what it meant, the grand duke was her husband. She sat daintily on the stairs, and lifted her foot. (thank god she had washed it) Lady Harriet who was very surprised by her coming down at all, but she was most surprised by the fact that she was so confident, she had to act fast, so she made the duke trip, breaking the shoe. Molly stared with horror then she remembered, she had the other shoe! She took it out of her pocket and handed it to the duke. "Don't worry I have the other one," She said. The duke smiled and tested it to be sure. It was a perfect fit!

When she had been taken to the palace, Sherlock was overjoyed, and Mycroft was happy that Sherlock had found love. The wedding was splendid Molly was amazed, she had never seen anything prettier. There were so many people, and she wasn't mistreated anymore, in fact she had asked the servants _not_ to call her my lady because it was far to strange.

_And when they were on the steps of the palace saying their vows they knew they made the right decision._

**_The End_**

**_Ok that was a lot of fun writing and editing and I would like to hear your _**

**_opinions on the story._**

**_Yours Truly_**

**_WhiffyBee_**


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